Web Syndication

Posted by Ras Chunylall in Syndication on 02 May 2014

Tags: marketing, online marketing

Web syndication is a form of syndication in which website material is made available to multiple other sites.  More commonly, web syndication refers to making web feeds available from a similar website in order to provide other people with a summary or update of the website's recently added content (for example, the latest news or new listing information).

Syndication refers to both, the websites providing information and the websites that display it.  Receiving websites gain the benefit of effectively increasing the information that can be returned to their website visitors, making their website more attractive to returning visitors.  For the website providing the information, syndication increased exposure across numerous online platforms.

Syndication feeds are commonly formatted in the XML format, where the two main families of web syndication formats are RSS and Atom.  While it can sometimes be difficult to setup and maintain a syndication feed, these can when supported by the right CMS at times be as easy as ticking the correct box.

Similar to syndication of propriety content, web syndication has been used to distribute listing information.  The greatest benefit of being able to syndicate your listing information is that data capture need only be done once.  This prevents having to update multiple platforms or having to maintain several different databases.

Benefits:
•     Single location to manage your listings (and other syndicated data).
•     Brand-name awareness, by being syndicated to a number of industry related websites, your name is continually promoted.
•     Syndication will result in an increased audience reach, increasing your potential client base.
•     Extra internal links to your new listings, this can help search engines find your listings as well as potentially improve your ranking.

Possible Drawbacks:
•     It is possible that a website you are syndicating to could outrank your website for a particular search term.
•     Listings that are seen to be duplicates of one another could result in one website not being returned for a specific search term.

We at Prop Data see syndication as a cornerstone to any online marketing campaign.  With the single click of the mouse, Prop Data Syndication will maximize your online exposure and publish your listings on all the major property portals and online classifieds websites. This will further extend your potential client base with no extra effort.

Check out our ever expanding Real Estate Syndication Network.